This aerial photo taken on Aug 13, 2020 shows a view of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Housing, education and healthcare services have topped the urban management agenda of the Shenzhen government as it seeks to build on its appeal to talent.
Shenzhen’s population grew by 7.13 million in the past decade, reaching 17.56 million last year, in a strong reflection of the southern city’s economic and labor attractions, according to a Guangdong provincial census released last week.
Zhou Zhonggao, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said providing good public services is a key factor in attracting people to live and work in Shenzhen. Inclusive and fair public services are probably the core elements of a city’s attractiveness, he said
The increase surpassed even that of Jiangsu province, whose population grew by 6.09 million from 2010-20, the latest national data shows. Jiangsu had the third-largest population growth after Guangdong and Zhejiang province.
Young people are said to be particularly keen to work and live in Shenzhen, while those aged 60 or above accounted for merely 5.36 percent of Shenzhen’s population — far below the national average of 18.7 percent.
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To maintain the momentum in luring young, well-educated people to Shenzhen, the city’s authorities have been upgrading urban management, especially in public services.
Zhou Zhonggao, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said providing good public services is a key factor in attracting people to live and work there. Inclusive and fair public services are probably the core elements of a city’s attractiveness, he said.
Zhou noted that the existing household registration, or hukou, policies in Shenzhen and Guangzhou have played an active role in luring high-quality labor, but the rapid population growth has put heavy pressure on public services, such as transportation, housing, education and medical care.
In accommodating Shenzhen’s growing population, one of the most pressing issues that need to be addressed is housing. A 2019 report by Beike Research Institute showed Shenzhen upgrading urban management to lure talent that the city’s homeownership was only 23.7 percent — far below Guangzhou’s at 54.9 percent and Hong Kong’s 49 percent.
Shenzhen’s soaring home prices are seen to be forcing many people to leave, as shown in a reduction in the number of students enrolled at primary schools and the number of mobile phone users in the city last year.
Aware of the situation, the local government has stepped up efforts to ease the problem. Compared to previous measures that mainly focused on curbing demand, they’re now focusing on increasing land supply, which analysts and observers believe remains at the core of the issue.
Shenzhen’s government has pledged that its land supply for construction for residential use this year will account for a record 32.1 percent. For last year and 2019, it was 24.4 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
In his government work report delivered at Shenzhen’s annual “two sessions” this month, Shenzhen Mayor Qin Weizhong said a total of 750,000 units of homes will be built in the next five years.
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The local authorities are also taking big steps to meet the growing demand for education and medical care, as more people come and live in the city. Shenzhen plans to provide 900,000 new school places for basic education and 20,000 new hospital beds in the next five years.
sally@chinadailyhk.com